Category Culture

When someone returns to Corsica after years of absence, I find it it is always of interest to hear what they have to say. This happens to be the case of Richard Falchi, who had spent most of his life on the mainland, and decided to return to his native island in 2015 – his family are originally from the village of Balogna, not far from Ajaccio – and of which I wrote in detail some time ago as the village street art has always been quite impressive.

Musician since he was fourteen years of age whilst studying, he left the ‘high plateau’ of the Ardèche region for England in order to perfect his English, and remained there for several months. But when he did return to France, he had in fact become a drummer. Furthering his studies, he attended a French school for press attaché.

Immediately associating Matisse with ‘colour’ and ‘tones’ comes to mind as being the obvious – how could it possibly be otherwise, when the south and Ajaccio had such an influence on his art at a particular time of his life – he was totally amazed and literally swept away under the influence of such beauty, which would inspire and give birth to fifty-five creative works. We must remember he came from the north, and discovering the Mediterranean would be nothing less than an enlightenment.
A slight historic, for those who have yet to discover his role in Corsica.

My task was to meet Jacques Poncin, an ardent admirer and specialist of Matisse living in Ajaccio, and maintaining the heritage and souvenir of the artist.
An architect originally from Lorraine, having attended the Beaux-Arts in Na...

He has always known he would follow his desire to become an artist, and more precisely a mural artist, painting and restoring. A native of Ajaccio, who returned to live here after having spent his youth in Paris.
‘Do it with passion or not at all‘ – a quote that immediately comes to mind when listening to what he has to say.

Retrospectively speaking, this is a family affair.
His great-great grandfather Philippe Bassoul was an artist, and also his son Jean-Baptiste Bassoul whose paintings can be found in the Fesch Museum – without forgetting Jean’s own father, who was to follow the footsteps of his elders – we can easily perceive immersion from an early age.

Stretching from the southern tip of Corsica to Bastia, the eastern coast is much less winding and mountainous than the western side of the island. ‘This immense plain which forms the whole eastern coast’, writes Gustave Flaubert ‘is uncultivated for the greater part – covered here and there with a maquis whose tuft of greenery appears from afar, in the middle of this white earth’.

Things have changed since the XIX century.
The eastern plain, far from being sterile, is now an intensive agricultural production area that exports wines, vegetables and fruits – including the famous Corsican tangerines.

Starting from the southern point towards the north, we reach Porto-Vecchio – ‘the old port’ in Corsican. This town on the east coast was founded by the Syracusans...

There is in Corsica, an ancestral custom which perfectly denotes the sense of honour, duty and morality of the inhabitants of the island.
When the head of a family dies, the objective of ‘a chjamata’ is to reunite all the men of the village, during a work period. This happens on a Sunday, and the villagers carry out in one day, what the deceased would have taken several weeks to do. This event, continues until the children’s majority, and often even well beyond.

Carbuccia 1913.
Barbarella had unfortunately resorted to this gesture of righteousness and generosity. Her dear husband died within a few hours, victim of a hernia, leaving their family and whose youngest boy, was only ten years of age. The child was called Jules-Baptiste...